Republican Mark Kirk gets past Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois Senate matchup

A Republican will soon hold the Senate seat once held by President Obama, with Mark Kirk earning a hard-fought victory in a result that perhaps best symbolizes the rejection of one-party rule in Washington.

Kirk, a congressman representing the collar counties around Chicago, defeated state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias after a decidedly negative contest centering around the Republican’s reported misstatements about teaching experience and military honors and the Democrat’s role in his family’s failed bank.

The fate of Obama’s Senate seat was a source of embarrassment for Democrats from the moment he resigned his office after being elected president in November 2008. Then- Gov. Rod Blagojevich was already under federal investigation for allegedly attempting to benefit personally from his power to appoint a replacement.

Blagojevich ultimately chose Roland Burris, the former state attorney general, but Democrats delayed seating him in the new Congress. For this year’s campaign, the White House tried in vain to recruit other Democrats, such as state Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, but eventually threw its support to Giannoulias when he won the Democratic primary in February.

Kirk, considered a moderate Republican, easily fended off more conservative opposition that would vex the establishment in later GOP primary contests. But Democrats soon pounced on a series of reports that Kirk had errors on his résumé regarding military honors and had made misstatements about his background as a teacher.

Giannoulias, elected state treasurer during a Democratic sweep of state office in 2006, was tested soon after his primary win by the failure of his family’s Broadway Bank, where he was a senior loan officer. Republicans asserted that the bank did business with individuals with alleged criminal ties, as well as Tony Rezko, a Democratic fund-raiser later convicted of fraud and money laundering.

With Democratic opportunities slipping away elsewhere, the White House ultimately made a full-court press to hold the seat Obama won in 2004. The president made a final visit to support Giannoulias on the campaign’s final weekend.